Grab the Chance!FULL POWER TOWARDS 2017 EUROPEAN CAPITAL OF CULTURE

will be an amazing year for Denmark, who will be the host country of European Capital of Culture. On the 24th of August this year an international jury will decide which city will have the honor.All Danish cities were invited to participate. Aarhus and Sønderborg (including the Southern Jutland-Schleswig region) advance to the deciding round.- But, Sønderborg is a small town. It doesn’t stand a chance against a big city like Aarhus with all its culture... is perhaps the first thought for many.

Actually Sønderborg has a good chance. The Capital of Culture competition is not about how many existing cultural institutions there are in the city.The purpose of European Capital of Culture is, through culture, to create a sense of community. It’s not about a single year with special events. It’s about a vision stretching 20 years in to the future. The work involved will strengthen the role of culture in development strategies and bring new inspiration to the cultural life in the whole region.

2017

SØNDERBORG

The vision for European Capital of Culture is centered on Sønderborg, but it’s a regional project with many events in the other cities in the region of South Denmark and across the border.

Experiences from other European Capitals of Culture have shown that an event such as this strengthens employment, growth and the development of the entire region. In many cities, amongst others Liverpool08 and Linz09, every invested euro was multiplied 7-8 times in revenue, and tourism rose by almost 13 percent for the region as a whole.

From impact measurements of former Capitals of Culture we know that four out of five regions experi-ence that the investment also has long-ranging effects in the form of:• More visitors/tourists• Lasting branding as a visionary

city/region• Funding from the EU, state,

region and private sponsors.• New jobs• Growth in the creative industry• International attention• Creative and proud citizens• Strengthened communities and

integration

THE BENEFITS

FOR THE REGION

S2017 has advanced to the round that decides what city is going to be the European Capital of Culture, and we need everyone to make the vision come true.The work with the application has been ongoing for a couple of years. Thousands of citizens and cultural operators from both sides of the border have attended workshops and focus groups that have created the ideas for the Capital of Culture candidacy.

For the artistic part of the application, S2017 use capacities

from the entire region – plus cities such as Kiel, Hamburg and Copenhagen. The candidacy also enters into cultural networks from Europe and beyond.

Sue McCauley from Australia is in charge of the artistic development of the program in collaboration with local and international experts. Cultural coordinators in the entire region – south and north of the border- are simultaneously involved in an inter-regional project.

EVERY EFFORT

MUST BE DEPLOYED

The budget for S2017 in the years 2012-2018 is 53 million euro to be funded by the participating municipalities and regions as well as the Danish state, the EU and

WHAT’S THE PRICE?

A GLOOMY OUTLOOK

sponsors. Even in times like these with tight budgets and crisis, the politicians choose to give priority to culture because they see it as a necessary investment.

Like many other rural areas in Europe the Sønderborg region is in a negative spiral. While the proportion of elderly are growing steadily, the younger generations are moving to the large cities. The result is that the region is drained of competencies. A wide range of statistics and prognosis have doomed Sønderborg and most of the region as well as northern Germany to be an isolated area, where growth has stalled or gone backwards.

HISTORY SURROUNDING BORDER

CREATES THE ISOLATION

Sønderborg and the region of Southern Jutland used to be a part of the Schleswig Duchy, and a citizen was first and foremost a citizen of Schleswig. The Danish, German and Frisian languages blended together. But Sønderborg became the center of bloody wars. Dybbøl Mill has been shot to ruins twice – the last time was in 1864,

almost 150 years ago. Denmark then lost a third of its land mass and the whole region of Southern Jutland became German. After a plebiscite following World War I the current border was settled. Still bottlenecks in cross-border co-operation remain in everyday life, which continue to isolate the border region.

Sønderborg

South Denmark

The whole Country

2010 = Index 100

The curve shows the expected population development from 2010 to 2030 in the municipality, in South Denmark and in the whole country.Source: Statistics Denmark

106

104

102

100

98

962010 2015 2020 2025 2030

POPULATION PROJECTION 2010-2030

With the European Capital of Culture as a milestone the region is working to reinvent itself on both sides of the border. With its 76,000 inhabitants Sønderborg is not a large city. But 700,000 people live in the region of Southern Jutland and Schleswig, and if you combine that with the population of the Region of South Denmark and Schleswig-Holstein it amounts to almost 4 million inhabitants. Many cross-border collaborations have come to existence in the last 10-15 years and it is a goal of the project

to strengthen these collaborations in cultural and other areas.The border region has a mix of cultures. The Danish minority in Northern Germany numbers approximately 50,000 people and around 15,000 people are a part of the German minority north of the border. This is a unique starting point for creating a melting pot where cultural diversity is seen as strength. A place which opens up to the world, and in which people from other countries and cultures feel welcome.

CULTURE ACROSS BORDERS

Most of the world is experiencing a growing tendency of urbanization where people leave rural areas and move to large cities. This is the big challenge for small towns in rural areas. But it doesn’t have to be dull to live outside the big cities. S2017 is going to be proof of that. Rural areas have a lot of attractive qualities that will be highly sought once they are developed and rendered visible. Here, life is at a slower pace, nature is right outside the door, and there are many strong communities. By giving priority to culture and creativity S2017 aims to

create a countryside metropolis as an attractive alternative to living in the big city.

COUNTRYSIDE METROPOLIS

SØNDERBORG

THE MOVEMENTwww.themovementofdoingsomethingaboutit.eu and facebook.com/themovementofdoingsomethingaboutit.S2017

The road to the Countryside Metropolis leads you over three bridges with artistic events and projects of the Capital of Culture. The bridges Connect, Confront and Celebrate our cultural differences. The program will reflect this both in singular events with famous international artists as well as in longer-lasting events of more common caliber which incorporates art.To be Capital of Culture is not only about opera and art exhibits, it is also about the strong sense of community in both local environments, in the clubs and NGO’s and at work. The culture of everyday life is at the centre, and the region’s greatest assets in the effort to create growth are the people that live here, the citizens.

New forms of co-operation and events come to existence and

continue to develop until the culmination in 2017. Of course our focus is to obtain the honor for Sønderborg and the South Denmark/North Germany region becoming Capital of Culture, but the main goal is to develop more cooperation and strengthen the sense of community. It is always worthwhile to try something different to inspire and strengthen the region.Everyone is welcome to contribute ideas or contact S2017 to hear about the opportunities to get involved.

S2017 have started THE MOVEMENT OF DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT – the place where young people create their own events to make things happen. Check out the websites:

CONTRIBUTION FROM

COMMON CULTURE

In 1985 Athens became the first city to be appointed European Capital of Culture. Since 2005 it has become custom to appoint two host countries so that the Capitals of Culture complement each other.

2012 Maribor, Slovenia, and Guimaraes, Portugal

2013 Marseilles-Provence, France, and Kosice, Slovakia

2014 Umeå, Sweden and Riga, Latvia

2015 Mons, Belgium, and Plzen, Czech Republic

2016 San Sebastian, Spain, and Wroclaw, Poland

2017 Denmark and Cyprus

2018 Netherlands and Malta

Cities with aspirations must go through an application process. The winning city is chosen five years before the year by an international jury, consisting of six national members and seven appointed by the EU institutions.

See the application from Sønderborg, Southern Denmark-Schleswig on the website:

WWW.SONDERBORG2017.DK

facebook.com/sonderborg2017

EUROPEAN CAPITAL

OF CULTURE

2017 team: Back row from left: Nicolae Balc, Gitte Bjørn-Lüthi, Ning Guan, Elisa Priester, Else Christensen Redzepovic, Henriette Pilegaard, Tamim Shakeel Hussain. Front row: Patricio Soto, Sue McCauley, Juliana Salten. Municipality of Sønderborg and coordinators in culture administrations of the Southern Jutland-Schleswig region are also part of the project.

2017 SecretariatMunicipality of SønderborgAlsion 2DK-6400 Sønderborg

E-mail: 2017@sonderborg.dkwww.sonderborg2017.dk